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         Sloane Grammar School boy, if you seek your memorial,

look around you but you'll need to register first.

 


 

Register and link up with old school friends again and become part of Sloane Reunited.

If you were a pupil or member of staff at Sloane you qualify to register for the website. Click on Missing Classmates at the top of this page to see if we've been expecting you. If you see your name, click on it and follow instructions. If your name's not there click on BECOME A MEMBER to learn more and then click the ADD NAME button to start the ball rolling or click Contact Us at the top of the page, read what you see then complete the box at the bottom of that page to ask me to add your name to the list.

 

It's Free, it's Easy, it's Secure

and

You're Never Alone As A Sloane

 





TO ALL MEMBERS, DON'T FORGET!! -

PLEASE CHECK THE ANNOUNCEMENTS BOARD AT THE FOOT  OF THIS PAGE FOR ANYTHING IMPORTANT and, after you Log In, the CALENDAR OF EVENTS PAGE FOR DETAILS OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS. 

If you're having trouble logging in because you've forgotten your Password, click on Forgot Password? inside the Classmate Login box that appears after you click   Sign In   and you'll be Emailed a link to reset it.
 

 

You'll find other helpful tips under REMINDERS below.
 

  The Sloane

 

                                                                                                                                                                                     


Hello and Welcome to

Mark Foulsham's

Sloane Grammar School website


 

If I built it I knew you would come

  

 

 

A School that invited loyalty

 (Quote by Don Wheal)

 
Gone But Not Forgotten

'Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade

Of that which once was great is pass'd away.'


William Wordsworth

On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic

 


You may think you're done with the past but the past isn't done with you!
 


 

"The merits of a school are judged as much by the men it produces as by their achievements as boys" - 

(Old Cheynean D.J. Cowie, March 1929)

 


 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                    

If you're a member, click on an image (     ) at the top for more. 

Here's what you'll find -

 

  = Messages waiting for you in the Message Centre. The red bubble shows how                       many.

  = Website activity. Check for things you may have missed.

  = Member functions - Edit Profile, Edit Contact Info, Change Password,                               Log Out, access the Message Centre, and Notify Me (for indicating your website                  Notification and  Profile Subscription choices).


      AND -

  If you're already a member please remember to keep your Email address up to date using Edit Contact Info, to be found by clicking on  the  image at the top of the page. 


 Please don't forget to use the Notify Me page under the  image to make selections that will help you keep in touch as well as help you enjoy all the website has to offer.


      Please remember to Log Out when you leave the site by using the Log Out button to be found under the  image at the top of the page. 
 


         AND FINALLY, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, -

Please let a close relative know of your participation in the Sloane website and show them how to use the Contact Us page to notify me in the sad event of your death. Not only will this allow me to notify other members, it will also put a stop to any website generated emails finding their way to your Inbox. Thank you.

 


 

Come on in! 
Don't be late! 
This is one detention 
You'll be pleased to take
.

               

    A WARM WELCOME 


to fellow Cheyneans and passers-by, from the Official Sloane Grammar School 1919-1970 Old Cheyneans and Friends web site.

Mark Foulsham, at Sloane 1963-70, created this site in August 2008 to record for posterity all that I can, and for all those who attended Sloane or simply have a Sloane connection, to share and enjoy. Feel free just to browse or, if you feel you qualify to join us, make full use of the site by becoming a Registered ClassmateClick on the Click Here to Register button above to start the registration process. It's Free! If it doesn't work for you it's because I'm no longer around and new memberships aren't available even though the website is. Sorry!

While I'm still alive, I'll also be happy to send a personal invitation to anyone else with a Sloane School Chelsea connection who you think might like to join us. Just enter their Email address in the MISSING CLASSMATES box to your right and click Send Invite.  

We may not understand why but memories of our days at Sloane remain with us while others do not. Whether they're good or they're bad, I'd like to give all old boys the opportunity to keep those memories alive.

 

  


 

 Aspirations and Objectives


Sloane never had a motto and although our school badge is based on the lion rampant and boar's head of the Cadogan family crest their motto, Qui Invidet Minor Est or He That Envies Is Inferior, is not really appropriate so I'll adopt the one to be found on the Coat of Arms of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as it suits us nicely -


Quam Bonum In Unum Habitare

 (What A Good Thing It Is To Dwell Together In Unity) 


It is hoped, in some small way, to be able to have similar objectives to those stated for the first issue of The Cheynean in December 1926  -


"To record faithfully the major activities of the School, to promote and foster a corporate spirit in the School, to excite a greater keenness both in the games and in other phases of its social life, and to serve as a link between present members of the School and the Old Cheyneans".  -

and also to bring together, once again, old friends and classmates, and those of us who have outlived the school and share a common interest in its history and its future.

Sadly, I've no memory of having ever sung or even heard a school song but apparently one was written by music Master Mr Seymour Dicker in 1928, and was first sung in July of that year by pupil J E Bush. What became of it after that first performance is a mystery but it contained the lines -

"Salve, the School and its scholars so keen,

 Long may they keep its memory green."

 If you've any memories of Sloane you'd like to share, use the Contact Us page to send them in and, whilst you're there, register for the site as well. 

Once you've registered, you can activate the Instant Messaging feature that allows you to hold a 'real-time' online conversation with anyone else who has logged on to the website. You can also send a message to someone else on the site via the Message Centre or by using their Profile. Click on their name on the Classmate Profiles page then
 click on the red 'Send ? a private message' at the top of their Profile.


After you've registered, why not take a look at all the Classmate Profiles ? Even if you don't know the person involved, the information they've put on their Profile can be interesting, illuminating and fun, and often brings back memories of something you thought you'd forgotten about.

If, at any time after becoming a member, you're unsure about anything click on this Using This Site link for an explanation or contact me direct via the Contact Us page.
              

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 Why Not Take a Look at Where your Classmates are Living?


Find out the Postcode of a Classmate from their Profile (if they've agreed to let everyone know it) then Click on the link below, enter the details where it says 'Address', then Click on 'Go'. Not every country is covered yet and those that are have limited coverage, but it's worth a try.

Here's the link. Have fun - http://www.vpike.com/

 

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The Sloane News

 

BREAKING NEWS!


2024 Wimbledon Doubles Draw Made Early This Year


The draw for this year's Wimbledon Tennis Finals Doubles Championship has been made early to avoid confusion. It will be a confused opening round in which a woman and a man who used to be a woman meet a man and a woman who used to be a man. The winners of that match will meet a man who became a woman but is now a man again partnered by a woman who is saving up to be a ball-boy.

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Confused Suicide Bomber Forgets To Put His Clocks Back And Blows Up One Hour Early

 

 

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Local Labour Council Fears Government Funding For Potholes Has Arrived Too Late 


Although welcomed by many, the proposed Government increase in the Pothole Fund may have arrived too late for Lambeth Council -
 

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Royal Family Rally Round After King's Cancer Diagnosis
 

 

Prince William is said to be absolutely exhausted today after agreeing to take on plenty of overtime at double his normal rate, so he can treat his family to something nice.

With news emerging that the King would be stepping back from public duties whilst he receives treatment for his illness, Prince William has wasted no time in agreeing to put in loads of overtime for the next few weeks, as long as he gets “double bubble” for it.

A spokesperson for the Royal Family said,

“They offered him time and a half, but he told them where to go.

We can confirm that Prince William has agreed to take on a number of extra hours at work in the coming weeks, for double time of course, because he is saving for a holiday and to buy Kate something nice.

Obviously this is pretty tiring, and he is already really knackered, but the money was just too good to turn down, so he’s happy to cash in while it’s on offer.

We expect him to continue to work these overtime hours for at least another month. Though there has been some discussion about him working some weekend hours but I don’t think he’ll bother with that unless they offer him triple time or something."

Asked if Harry has also been offered any overtime work to help out the Royals I was told,

“Didn’t get the chance, he’s buggered off back to America. Something to do with a hacking cough, we think. Or it could be that he's got his pockets full of the Mirror Group's money and wanted to get back home before his father asks for some of it to bail Andrew out again. ”


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FRONT PAGE NEWS


Hanged Just For Being Gay


This is one item I thought was worth a mention on a page that's normally lighthearted. It was something I was ignorant of and whilst it may have been obvious to everyone that homosexuals had always been unfairly prejudiced against and considered 'unnatural' to the extent that various efforts were made and treatments applied to change their sexuality, I had never been aware of how long homosexuals had been considered criminals or to what extent society had attempted to punish them for it and eradicate homosexuality completely.

A new book out by Labour MP Chris Bryant, called James and John, relates the story of two men who were hanged for sodomy in England in 1835. Thankfully, they were the last men to be hanged for the 'crime'. The two men, 32-year-old James Pratt and the slightly older John Smith, were arrested at 45, George Street, Southwark on 29th August, 1835 for an offence for which, if found guilty, the punishment had been death by hanging since the reign of Henry VIII. Most other countries had never executed people for homosexuality, and those that did had long before abolished the practice still carried out in this country at the time of this particular case. Germany's last case was in 1537, Spain's in 1647, Switzerland's in 1662, Italy's in 1668 and France's in 1750. Yet between 1806 and 1835 in England, 404 men were sentenced to death for sodomy. Of these, 56 were hanged, while many others were imprisoned or transported.

This cruelty was inspired primarily by religion, with the Church of England ruling your life from baptism to burial, and threatening damnation for the impenitent sinner. Sodomy or 'buggery' was one such sin and with the church publicly condemning perpetrators, and more or less dictating what was right and what was wrong, a largely ignorant public soon followed suit. Yet for all the public condemnation sodomy was the crime that dared not speak its name. Most newspapers
declared that 'such unspeakable acts could never be detailed' when reporting legal proceedings involving the 'crime'. In court there were often only veiled references to an accused's 'depravity' and Home Office officials, warders, clerks and short-hand writers at the Old Bailey also moderated their language and refused to write the full words of sodomy or buggery, writing such as b-gg-ry and s-d--y instead. In many cases, all that was recorded of the trial was the name of the offender, the nameless offence, the verdict, the sentence, the jury and the judge. This silence regarding cases involving sodomy means that today's history books make it look as if no homosexuals existed at all in early 19th century Britain. Indeed, the downfall of the aforementioned James and John can only be reconstructed thanks to the unusually diligent shorthand writer at their trial. He seemed to be aware that he could include very little in his official account so provided a wealth of detail in an appendix - the only one he ever wrote.

James Pratt and John Smith were tried on 26th September by a jury composed mainly of shopkeepers, and judgement was made by Sir John Gurney, a man apparently known to be harsh and pitiless, and particularly so towards homosexuals. The indictment claimed the accused had been 'seduced by the instigation of the Devil' and the charges against both men used similar language with those against John stating he had,

"feloniously, wickedly, diabolically and against the order of nature" committed and perpetrated "the detestable, horrid and abominable crime among Christians not to be named, called buggery".

As you'd expect, the men did not have a defence lawyer or anyone to advise them (their defence was that they "weren't guilty") and the judge was not expected to be an impartial referee but rather someone who would lead the prosecution. In the event, the jury didn't even retire to consider their verdict and took only seconds to reach it. Both men were found guilty of a felony and sentencing was deferred until the following Monday and passed by the Recorder, Charles Ewan Law MP, the City of London's senior legal officer. He was anti-gay and had previously tabled an amendment to a bill going through parliament proposing that the law on homosexuality be toughened further. The Lords thought the amendment to be too extreme and killed it. The Recorder dealt with other prisoners first and asked that James and John be dealt with last. When the time came for them to be sentenced the Recorder suggested that women should leave the court and when the two men were brought before him he told them he'd separated them from the other prisoners because

"however great their crimes might have been, they would have been contaminated" by James and John's presence.

He did not want to 

"offend the ears of the court by dilating upon the enormity of the offence but he would implore the two men to seek mercy from God, as they stood upon the brink of eternity, guilty of offences which hardly excite a tear of pity for their fate, and in consideration of which in a British country mercy had ever been a stranger."

After sentencing both men to be hanged he went on to implore them to

"apply the short time they had to live to God for that mercy they could not expect to receive from the hands of a man."


Chris Bryant MP is also an openly homosexual man and there will be some who read the above and believe it to be influenced by bias, and even bitterness, considering the abuse he has received on social media for being gay and for his dislike of the Anglican church's stance on homosexuality. Whilst I can see why they might think that, there's no getting away from the fact that it took until 1967 to decriminalise sex between two men over the age of 21 and in private and we're now living in a time when same sex marriage is legal in 35 countries. In the lifetime of this website I have changed my own views on this, and whilst I didn't think 'marriage' was the appropriate word to use to describe the union of two people of the same sex, I'm now happy with it. Times change and we change with them or get left behind. One day it will seem as if we have all always been equal, and the inequalities of the past will be a distant memory. That's the hope and that's the way it should be. All religions need to continue to adapt and come out and say that being gay is not a crime. Unfortunately, religious beliefs are so deep rooted that any change will take a very long time and may never happen.  Not everyone pays attention to what religion tells them, of course, but if all religions were to change how they have always thought about homosexuality it will go a long way to changing how the world thinks about it and will ultimately allow many more people to lose their fear and be true to themselves.

My own belief is that being gay is not a choice; it is genetic, and modern science is getting closer to proving that, although the precise genes involved in the reasons for being gay have yet to be identified. Those who take the Bible at face value refer to Romans 1:24-29 that implies homosexuality is wrong and to be avoided. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 lists a very unusual phrase about homosexuality where he says, 

"those who do such things will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

So, it's your choice then, is it? Homosexuality or Heaven? A believer in God and religion will tell you that God made us just as we should be. There are no mistakes. If that's so then why are some being punished for it and being told to deny their sexuality?

Anyway, if a person is an adult, is it anyone else's business what their sexual proclivity is other than their own? I don't suppose I'll be around when the day comes when all people are accepted, without a thought, for their beliefs, their faith, their sexual orientation, their gender and everything else but we are moving in the right direction.

If you've got your own views on the subject why not share them with us on the Notice Board page.

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Ireland Fails With Efforts To Get Cheaper Electricity From France


Ireland had been hopeful of being able to get cheaper electricity from France. Unfortunately, when it came to plugging in the lead they'd taken by rowing boat to Le Havre under cover of darkness they realised they'd left the adapter at home and consequently their square pinned plug wouldn't fit the round pinned French electricity grid socket that had been conveniently sited for them on the beach. No adapters were available locally so the connection has been re-planned for one late night next month. Ireland is praying they avoid the number of inflatables that will be adding to Channel traffic and will be taking two adapters just to be sure, to be sure. 



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HOME FRONT NEWS



So, we leave Christmas celebration behind again for a while along with all the headaches that it has a habit of bringing with it. Sorry to raise the subject again so long after it happened but I've been busy. For those of you who aren't aware (I mentioned it on the Notice Board page at some point), my run-up to last Christmas was fraught beyond all reason. In fact, 2023 was generally a year I'd like to forget so I'm not going to go over it all again here, just what happened as we were getting ready to enjoy Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, I took a phone call from my oldest surviving sister to say that our little sister had been taken into hospital after suffering a stroke. An hour or so later my wife took a phone call that told her one of her brothers had been taken into hospital after a heart attack. Later on during the same day, she took another call to say that one of her other brothers had experienced kidney failure and had been taken into hospital. My sister has only recently returned from Kingston Hospital and one of my wife's brothers from Milton Keynes University Hospital and the other from Brighton General Hospital. Thankfully, all have survived their ordeals and surgery relating to them but it hits you more when you receive news like that from out of the blue knowing there's nothing you can do to help. It certainly put a damper on our Christmas but the news that they're all progressing slowly but well gives us hope that they'll be around for longer yet.

"Remember, if you're drinking to forget, please pay in advance" were the barman's words to me when I went into my local thinking a drink might help short-term. Didn't take me long to remember it's never the answer to any problems. It's one of those situations where there's a difference between theory and reality.

I can recall that some years ago my son came home from school and said to me,

"My teacher's said that for my homework I've got to learn the difference between theory and reality."

"Well," I said, "Why don't you ask your mother if she'd sleep with the postman for a million quid." 

He did just that and when he came back he said to me,

"Mum said she would sleep with the postman for a million quid."

I said,

"Well, there you go. Now go and ask your sister the same question."

When he came back, he said his sister said "yes" she would sleep with the postman for a million quid.

I told him, "There you have it! There's your answer. That's the difference between theory and reality. In theory we're sitting on two million quid. In reality we're living with a couple of tarts."

I had to go up to St Helier Hospital Out Patients on 25th January and as soon as I walked into the waiting room someone greeted me with,

"Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!".

I was a bit perplexed, but took a seat next to a lady who, straight away turned round, looked me straight in the eye and said

"Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie, O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!" .

By now I was getting concerned that I may have walked into some sort of psychiatric section, so I stopped a passing nurse and enquired

"Is this the right place for Out Patients?".

She looked surprised, then replied

"No, this is the Burns Unit!

Ariving back home, I found my son was having another of his psychotic episodes, made worse, this time, by his depression. As I've said here before, he handles it all brilliantly but there are the occasional times when it's too much for him and we start to become even more concerned. We chat, and he hides himself away for a while because that's his way of dealing with it. He also jokes about it as much as he can. In fact, he said to me,

"I may not be my Mum's favourite child but I was the first one she thought of when the police knocked on the door."

As, for reasons that will be pretty obvious to you, my wife and I didn't make Tenerife on 29th December so we'll be spending a few days in Brighton from 15th to 18th February as I owe her a birthday present and she wants a piece of jewellery (have women got any imagination other than a vivid one?). We'll have a wander around the Lanes to find the piece she wants, visit the Royal Pavilion, and have a nightime walk along the beach. I hope the walk isn't similar to the one I took in Spain some years ago that frightened the life out of me. I thought, for a moment, that I'd stumbled upon a Ku Klux Klan meeting. It was only after I got really close that I realised that I'd stumbled on a cluster of closed beach umbrellas -



 

Given our climate, I'm sure they'd only be of any use if it rained.

We'll end our Brighton walk with a meal and a drink in a Wetherspoon's pub near the Grand Hotel, where we'll be staying. The last time I was in that pub my chat with the barman was interrupted by an Irish bloke who came in and asked,

"How much is your lager?"

"Two pounds a pint and seven pounds a pitcher," he was told.

He seemed satisfied with the answer but his response confused both me and the barman. He said,

"I'll just have a pint then. You can keep the photo!"


Before I leave you, just a reminder that the 1964 intake have a 60th reunon planned for September. If you're one of those who joined Mick Jarvis' year in '64 or later but haven't let him know your interest in the reunion, send him a message via this website's Message Centre (link available under the white Head and Shoulders image at the top right of the website's pages).

If you know anyone from the '64 intake who's not a website member, please let them know about it.

Additionally, the 1960 intake are meeting for a beer or two in The Rocket in Brewhouse Lane, on the Putney side of Putney Bridge, on the afternoon of18th March. Join them if you can.

Final words before I write again - these days people don't spend enough time or thought on personal words to their family and friends, they just copy and paste some random rubbish and send it on. So, after all we've been through together I want to thank you for your friendship and wish you a happy 2018! You are the best gymnastics group anyone could ask for.

Best wishes,

Brenda

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JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

A 75 year old man turns up at an A & E reception which was full of patients. The receptionist asks what is wrong. He says I’ve got something wrong with my dick. The receptionist scolds him and tells him not to come in and speak in embarrassing language in front of a room full of people and that he could have said something like he had something wrong with his ear and when he got to see a doctor he could then explain the real problem. The man decided to leave. He came back 20 minutes later and said to the receptionist that he had something wrong with his ear. Pleased that the man had taken her advice she asked

“What’s wrong with your ear?”

He replied

”I can’t piss out of it”.

 

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A man waddles into the doctor’s office with his body all swollen...

The doctor asks:

“Oh my god what happened?”

The man replies:

“I’m not too sure”

After a thorough examination the doctor hands him a box of medicine

The doctor then says:

“Put one of these up your rear passageway every day, come back in a week”

The man thanks him and leaves.

After a week the man returns to the doctor’s office, now twice as swollen as before...

The doctor, in shock, then asks:

“Oh my goodness, did you use the medicine and put one up your rear passageway each day?”

The man replies:

“Yes I did. I put one up my rear passage, one up my front passage, one in my living room, one in my kitchen, I even put one in my bathroom and for all the good it's done me, I may as well have shoved it up my backside!”

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A vicar is talking to a male patient in hospital, saying how he will say a prayer for his quick healing when all of a sudden the man begins to attempt to tell him something.

The man motions with his hand so the vicar steps closer.

"What is it? What do you need?" The pastor asked.

The man looks around the room and grabs the pen and paper and scribbles something on the paper.

As he hands the paper to the vicar the man passes away. The pastor takes the paper without reading it and folds it into his pocket as he began to read a passage from the bible.

A few days later at the man's funeral the vicar is giving a speech -

"I knew him very well...and actually I have the rare opportunity of reading his last words that he wrote just before he went to meet the Lord. I have not read this note until now so we will all be privileged to hear them together"

The vicar pulls the paper out and reads aloud.  It reads,

"You are stepping on my oxygen tube"

 

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THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK

 

Most bald people still own a comb. They just can't part with it.

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How lovely to see youngsters supporting local football without a mobile phone stuck to their hands -

 


 

I hope whoever this was meant to be read by didn't read it straight across from left to right -
 


 

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By Sir John Betjeman –


But I’m dying now and done for.

What on earth was all the fun for?


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Please spare a thought for a friend of mine who lived his life with a terrible stammer. He died in prison this week without getting to finish his sentence.


* * *

 

The Story of The NEVERWELLS (WHO ARE NEVER OUT OF TROUBLE)


Many years ago I picked up a small book at a car boot sale and now, with over three years in the world of Covid behind us, I thought it might be a good time to share its contents with you. 

The book in question, published in 1948 (the year the NHS came into being), is titled The Story of The Neverwells (Who Are Never Out Of Trouble) and was written by William Edwards, a doctor, under the pseudonym Dr. Goodenough.

The Neverwells included mum and dad, their small boy Billy, growing-up Mary and baby Roy, and came into being after the Editor of The People newspaper met two people on a train. One of them was a doctor friend of the Editor's, 'a kindly soul yet a man of the world who has one of the biggest practices in the South of England.' He said: 

"I am rushed off my feet these days. And in most cases I need not have been called in at all, if only people had a simple knowledge about ordinary illnesses."

Later, the Editor found himself talking to a woman passenger with two children -

"They're not too strong," she said, "always under the doctor with one thing or another. It's never serious you know, but the trouble is you can never be sure and so you must call the doctor."

The same night as he had spoken to the two people on the train, the Editor of The People telephoned his doctor friend and asked him if he would become Dr. Goodenough and write for him every week the story of a family - the Neverwell family - about their complaints and how he treated them, and in simple language so that ordinary people could at last learn the elementary things about illness.

For over a year before the book was published, Dr. Goodenough entertained and instructed People readers every week with the story of the never-ending complaints of the Neverwells. There were words of wisdom and understanding in these little features as well. So much so that, increasingly, the People was inundated with letters from readers asking for a book to be written. Hence, the book I picked up some 30 years after it was first published I now bring to you each time I update this Home Page of the website. I hope you find some enjoyment in its pages and can see the comparisons it enables us to make between the way medicine was practiced back then and how much it has advanced in such a relatively short space of time whilst the personal touch has moved in the opposite direction.

The following piece concerns baby Roy and how Dr. Goodenough diagnosed and dealt with his Gastro-Enteritis -

The baby went on being sick from 2 a.m. till breakfast time. Then he went off to sleep, and allowed Mrs. Neverwell to clear things up, get her husband off to work and the other children off to school. (Editor's Note: Don't you just love that?! Getting your husband 'off to work' and the kids 'off to school' was always considered part of the housewife's 'job').

When the baby woke, he seemed better, so Mrs. Neverwell tried him with a little cereal and milk. Within twenty minutes, it had all come back again. By teatime, his mother felt desperate, as the child had eaten nothing. When Mary came home from school, Mrs. Neverwell sent her for the doctor.

Dr. Goodenough, when he arrived, took the baby's temperature, which was normal. He felt Roy's tummy, and asked what he had had to eat the previous day.

"Well," said Mrs. Neverwell, "we did go out for the day, which we hadn't been able to do for a long time, what with one thing and another, and we all had some dinner at a restaurant; but all baby had was some stewed apple and custard. That couldn't have upset him."

"It was a dirty sort of place. We didn't ought to have gone there," said Mary. "I've had a tummy ache all day, and I think I'm going to have diarrhoea."

"But you had corned beef and treacle tart," said her mother. "What's that got to do with the baby?"

"It wasn't the same food, but, if Mary is right and place was dirty, it may easily have been the same infection," said the doctor. "These attacks of sickness and diarrhoea, which we call gastro-enteritis, are very much too frequent nowadays. I'm always seeing people suffering from them. They are not due to bad food, in the ordinary sense of food that looks and smells bad, but they are due to eating food contaminated by disease germs. The difficulty is that such food looks and tastes quite good."

"Well, what can you do about it?" asked Mrs. Neverwell.

"Personally, I should avoid any eating place which looked as Mary says, dirty. In many cases the trouble lies with the washing up. There is a shortage of soap, of labour, of hot water and of laundry services; and the result is that washing up has become far too casual. Too often, the dirty cups and plates are merely dipped in a bucket and then dried on a rag which has been in use for a week. If an infectious person has been to the place before you, and you use the same crockery - well, that's just how most of these epidemics start. What is wanted is far more supervision and a far more critical attitude by the public. It isn't necessary to be dirty, even in times of shortages. No restaurant dishes should be dried with cloths at all; for example, they should all be dried off in a hot oven. A lot more pointed remarks by customers at such places would do a lot of good and save a lot of illness."

"Is all gastro-enteritis caught that way, then? I thought they had had epidemics of it in hospitals?"

"True, they have. And one at least of those was traced down to a common use of feeding bottles. Even though they had been carefully washed, they were not quite sterile and they passed the infection on from one child to another. It just shows how careful you should be. Of course, some attacks are due to dirty handling of the food itself - there, again, our standards are much lower than they were before the war, when bread was often delivered wrapped up. And some attacks are not due to food infection at all, but follow on a cold or a sore throat."

"Well, what about Roy?" asked Mrs. Neverwell, who felt that it was no use locking the stable door after the horse had bolted. "How am I to stop him being sick? He just brings back everything."

"Your mistake was in trying to feed him at all. His stomach is in a highly irritable state and wants complete rest. You've been asking it to do a job of work."

"But he must eat something!"

"Not a bit of it. It doen't hurt a healthy child to go two or three days without food. He'll soon make up for it afterwards. There is only one food that needs no digesting - glucose. At least there is one other - alcohol, but we can hardly use that. A lot of healthy people buy up glucose, thinking it has some special virtue, whereas for them it is no more nourishing than potatoes or bread. If they weren't greedy, there would be planty in the shops for cases which need it - like Roy here. You'll have to go to the chemist and beg for some. Make a drink with a couple of teaspoonfuls of glucose, a dash of his orange juice and half a pint of water. Give him as much of that as he'll take; but nothing else at all for twenty-four hours. After that, go cautiously - just diluted milk for the next twenty-four hours, then a little milk pudding; but don't hurry it, or you'll start him off again.

Roy's sickness stopped, and they had a quiet night. In fact all went so well with the Neverwells for a few days that they actually welcomed Mr. Neverwell's Uncle Joe when he volunteered to come and spend a week with them. They forgot Uncle Joe's asthma!

Whether they'd forgotten Uncle Joe's asthma or not, they knew they had a doctor who could deal with it if it flared up again. See the next episode to learn how Dr. Goodenough handle's Uncle Joe's Asthma attacks.

 

* * *

 

* * * * *

 

The Home We Called Sloane
 

 

The Sloane building seen from Hortensia Road in 1908  


The Sloane building was 100 years old in 2008, although it didn't actually start life as a boys' school until after the First World War, during which it served as a hospital. It still stands and many memories are, no doubt, ingrained in its walls along with the odd name and ribald comment. Who knows what the future holds, despite its Grade II listing on May 7th, 2002. Grade II listed buildings can be altered, extended, or even demolished, but only with Local Authority consent, so it may be that the building is considered historically or architecturally interesting enough for it's fabric to remain untouched. Some consideration may have been given to it having been the first purpose-built secondary school in London, and it is certainly one of only 3% of all ages of listed buildings that was built in the 20th century. Schools generally are seen as a good investment by developers because they're easy to convert. They are likely to be structurally sound because the authorities will have inspected them regularly to ensure they comply with Health and Safety requirements. 

To learn more about what has happened to the building we left behind visit the Sloane Today page once you've become a registered member.

                                                             

Sadly, Sloane Grammar School for Boys only lasted 51 years, from 1919-1970. Sloane old boy John Binfield, in one of his poems, writes -

... the school, with
All its past, was sucked into a huge
Turbulent sea of glass in Pimlico
And sank without trace. "full fathom five..

Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark, now I hear them. Ding-dong bell".

The exterior of the building still survives in the form we all remember even if the interior doesn't. It would have been wonderful to have been able to celebrate, in 2019, what would have been its centenary as a boys' school, had it remained in existence as such. Unfortunately, for us, it wasn't to be, and the Covid-19 pandemic that gripped the world in 2020 and beyond didn't allow for a late celebration either . Maybe one day...... 
 

Sloane seen from the rear in 2014

 

* * *
   

This Website And The British Library's Web Archive


Please Note: - The school building still remains but not as a school. I've tried to preserve as much of its history and old boys' memories of it as I can, on this website. You might like to know that once I'm no longer around and have shuffled off to that classroom in the sky, this website will remain intact. Once my monthly payments to the Class Creator programmers cease the site will continue but to compensate them for their loss it will display adverts. If you're still around, you'll still be able to Log In to the site and carry on much as you did when I was alive. Naturally, the site will look exactly as it did (apart from the adverts) on the day I died. What will not be possible are any new members, unlikely as that is, as I won't be here to verify they are who they say they are.

In addition, in 2013 , just before the Legal Deposit regulations came into force, I asked to register the website with the British Library's UK Web Archive as one of historical interest and they agreed. So, when none of us are unable to Log In anymore or the Class Creator business ceases to operate, it will still be available for access by our children and grandchildren etc., as well as future historians, at this address -
 

Web Archiving
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7184
E-mail: web-archivist@bl.uk


Since 2013, publishers need to give a copy of every UK publication they make to the British Library. Five other major UK libraries may also ask to be given a copy. This system is called legal deposit and it's been a part of English law since 1662.

Print publications for legal deposit can be books, journals, sheet music, maps, plans, charts or tables. Now legal deposit also covers material published digitally such as websites, blogs, e-journals and CD-ROMs.

Legal deposit has many benefits for publishers and authors. The deposited publications can be read inside the British Library and will be preserved for future generations. Their works become part of the nation’s heritage, providing inspiration for new books and other publications.

Unfortunately, in the case of websites, the British Library say that much of the information contained in them cannot be archived for technical reasons. In addition, as almost all this website's pages are Password Protected, it will be impossible for them to be accessed unless I remove that restriction. At some point I will give the British Library's 'web crawler' access to our Password Protected pages to allow it to take a 'snapshot' of the site on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or 6-monthly basis. At the time of writing this, 2020, their system doesn't have the capability to crawl and archive private content that sits behind a Log In procedure. They will never be allowed access to members' Profiles and the personal information they contain.

The current generation of web crawlers cannot capture:

  • Interactive, dynamically generated content
  • Content that is only available via a search engine on the website, or some other form submission method
  • Some types of JavaScript-driven menus
  • YouTube videos, Flash movies and similar streaming audio or video (some audio and video files can be captured, e.g. those embedded via the standard HTML5 <video> or <audio> tags).

Unlike static HTML, which is relatively easy to capture, script code is very hard for traditional web crawlers to analyse, which is why the Library runs web browsers for a limited part of their crawls. Even that cannot capture very interactive web sites, like single-page web applications, or any site feature that needs a remote server to function. In practical terms this means that entering queries into the search box of an archived version of a website will not work. Standard links on the website, however, will work as normal.

Some JavaScript driven menus do not function well once archived. YouTube videos, Flash movies, and similar streaming audio or video are also beyond the capability of web crawlers. However, as members of the International Internet Preservation Consortium, contributors to the UK Web Archive are developing tools which will help capture this content in the future.

Attempts are made to gather all of the objects associated with a website including html, images, PDF documents, audio and video files and other objects such as programming scripts. However, the crawler software cannot automatically gather any material that is protected behind a password, without the owner's collaboration. Web site owners may however choose to divulge confidentially a user ID and password to allow archiving of these areas. So, as I said, I'll collaborate with the British Library to allow them to gather only non-invasive non-personal information behind the password protection if and when their archiving system becomes capable of it .

Should you wish to visit the UK Web Archive to see what it makes available for viewing or if you know of a website that you think deserves preservation, use this link -

https://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/info/nominate

* * *
 

Whatever our own personal reasons for it doing so, the school will still haunt most of us even if it disappears altogether. With that tenuous link, here's a poem that I came across in a copy of The Cheynean -

 


The Ghost of Sloane

 


 
When London's asleep and the School very quiet,
No sound of footsteps, no sound of a riot,
No sound of even the shuffle of feet,
No sound of the creak of a pupil's seat,
Out of the darkness the ghost of Sloane
Awakes from rest with a sigh and a groan.
Then up he arises to haunt the School
Climbing the stairs in the guise of a ghoul.
He shuffles and clanks down each corridor
Into the classrooms where stand desks galore.
He examines each desk and checks the boys' work,
Allots ghostly marks in the dark and the murk.

If you ever lose books from out of your desk,
And the teacher upbraids you and calls you a pest,
Just tell him my story, however tall,
Of the white shrouded phantom that haunts the School Hall.

                                                    J. Hollingshead (3C)


As for us, the boys who used to attend our Chelsea school, we probably considered ourselves 'Chelsea men' but I doubt that many of us fitted the description in this poem, written when he was in the 5th year by one time Sloane Schoolboy, A R Doubledee. I get the impression he didn't particularly approve of the 'Beatniks' of the late 50s and early 60s that he found himself sharing Chelsea with or, as he called them the 'Weirdies' -                                                                        

 
The Weirdies



The Chelsea man is excessively queer,
He only drinks coffee and doesn't like beer.
He's always "chatting" the girls, and yet
This seems to make him "one of the set".

His unkempt chin and uncut hair
Go with his feet which are usually bare.
If he wears shoes, they've never got soles,
And he's usually found in Bohemian holes.


His outsize sweater is generally black
Contrasting well with his shorty mac.
He wears his clothing merely to show
That he can keep up with the boys of Soho.


To find a girl he doesn't look far,
But into the nearest coffee bar,
Where he's sure to meet a Bohemian "yob".
They're all from Chelsea - what a mob!


The girls with hair right down their backs
Wear irregular clothes that look like sacks.
They walk about wearing father's sweater:
I really don't see why he should let 'er.


Their gaudy clothes of reds and greens
Match up with the style of their men-friends' jeans.
Now that's how it goes with the latest style:
Girls on their faces make-up pile,
The men wear anything they can find -
I shouldn't stare, I should just act blind!


A.R. Doubledee (5b)

* * * 

                                            

                                         


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If you would like to support this web site please click the Donate button at the foot of this box. Donations can be made by PayPal, or with a regular credit card if you do not have a PayPal account. PayPal deduct a fee from any donation, so if you'd rather not pay one, please send a cheque in my name to my home address, which you'll find on my Profile. Many thanks. Thanks also to Classmate Stefan Bremner-Morris for the cartoon below.  


 

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